PARIS, Arkansas — Duke Walker does a little bit of everything for the Paris Eagles.
“It’s one in very few that you get a kid like that,” said Paris head baseball coach Josh Hart.
He fields.
He pitches.
And he hits, as he showed in delivering the game-sealing RBI in a 15-5 win for Paris in the 3A-1 regional title game against Elkins.
“What was going through my mind was ‘Hey, we just won this thing’,” Walker said. “What everyone wanted us to do, what we knew we could come out here and do and we did it.”
And Walker played a huge part in making that happen, tossing a complete game shutout in the semi-final win against Booneville, before making noise with his bat in the championship game.
“If I told him to gear up and catch, he would gear up and catch,” Hart said. “Just a kid that wants to win, doesn’t matter what it is. ‘Coach, if this is what helps the team, we’ll do it.’ And that’s what he is.”
In other words, a leader.
“I knew I had to be on fire this weekend in order for my team to be on fire… because when I’m positive, they’re positive,” Walker said.
And that positivity is what the Eagles hope to carry with them into a state title run, as Walker looks to end his senior season on the right note.
“This team is a brotherhood, and nothing can get in between us. This team is something special,” Walker said.
“There’s one more to go get, and that’s the real prize.”